Sunday, 17 January 2016

I've finally got enough finished for a game of Maurice. Here's what they look like. First, the whole lot, then closer views of the left, centre and right. This would amount to 106 points of trained regulars in a normal game of Maurice, though I'd probably use less than this in a game so I could buy some army cards. (Games of Maurice are usually 100 points on each side)

Another view of the centre.

The cavalry

A view from the Swedish side of the table.

And a similar view of the Swedes painted so far, as seen from Russian side of the table. This represents 51 points of trained units in a game of Maurice.

Here are some pictures on my GNW stuff just as I get to final stages. Also some photos of stuff in boxes which I thought about when a friend asked 'what's next?'. Here are the units, just missing flags and flock.

Now with the flags and flock. I've still to give the bases a good shake to get rid of the surplus.

And in the background are the Swedish cavalry. Here are the horses so far. Still have a few manes and tails to do. ﻿

After a friend asked 'what's next?', I had a good laugh, then thought I'd take a couple of pictures.

First, the Danes for the Great Northern War.

Next, the Seven Years War Austrians. The cavalry are stored under the foam, just to have everything in the one box.

The Seven Years War French. Again, the cavalry are stored under the foam.

And the Seven Years War Prussians. The cavalry are stored under the foam. I tested a blue wash on the artillerymen, just to see the effect and if I could use it instead of paint or as a starting point for the tunics.

And the rest of the Great Northern War stuff, Swedish at the top, then Russian infantry, dismounted dragoons and more artillery, then the rest of the Russian cavalry.

And amusingly (or scarily) this doesn't include ancients, medieval, ECW, ACW, Flames of War and loads and loads of Napoleonics.

Had our first club games of the year. I meant to take photos, but my shaky hand meant the photos were a bit fuzzy. So just written comments for now. First was ADG. There were 3 club tourney games going on in the one night. I was involved with a Wars of Roses civil war with Yorkist armies on both sides. It was touch and go for much of the evening, but my billmen managed to get amonst the enemy bow and eventually I won through. It was close though; I lost 2/3 of my army in disordered and routed units. The other games saw the Arabs defeat the Normans, though again at a cost. And the third game involved the Scots Irish defeating the Spanish / Granadines though at a cost of 21 disordered and routed units out of 23 in the army.But all good games, and I think we're all starting to move beyond game mechanisms into tactics. Last week I was playing a new boardgame, Waterloo, Quelle affair! which a friend got though a kickstarter. He and another chap had played a couple of games. It was a hex game with division unit counters and driven by playing cards. There were cards for each corps commander and some strategy cards, and you moved the units of a corps when you drew the appropriate commander card. There was another card which you could flip at any point in the turn to initiate combat, though once you had done your combat, that was you for the turn, even if your opponent still had several moves and his combat card still to play. Combat is a kind of buckets-of-dice approach, with one dice rolled for each strength point in an attack against one hex, and looking for 5's or 6's to hit. It was OK and an reasonably interesting game, but for me, it suffered in being a bit too close in style to Commands and Colors Napoleonics, though without CnCs tension and drama. I may play it again if offered, though it's so far down my list of things to play that I'll probably never play it. Now, Commands and Colors Napoleonic is definitely on my list, specially after getting the recent Generals, Marshals and Tacticians expansion. Also at the club last week was an ADG game between the Arabs and the Spanish / Granadines / something (I really must find out!). And four chaps had a Flames of War bash on the go; all mid-war armour. I can't remember what else was on - some sci-fi game I think. Next week is more ADG for some, but I'll be playing a Russian Front boardgame. Still to decide which one, but it may well be my double sized version of Turning Point: Stalingrad. I'll try to remember a camera and a stand so I can take photos.

Monday, 4 January 2016

Over the Christmas period I was able to push on a bit more with the GNW Russians. The first pictures are just after the topping and tailing of tricornes, boots and scabbards. The figures are effectively finished, except for a final check on any details I've overlooked or messed up. I've still to do buttons and lace on the drummers.

Now a couple of pictures of the generals. I watched the Poltava scene from the Sovereign's Servant again (it's on youtube somewhere). Interestingly in the film, Peter and his staff wore sashes with a very pale blue uppermost, then red then white. I did the sashes on my general figures per internet examples and uniform guides I have, with white uppermost, then blue then red. I'm going to stay with what I have as it seems to be more accurate. (And isn't it interesting how we sometimes get involved in little details of figures and painting, often forgetting that in a game, no one is likely to notice the detail from 3 or 4 feet away across a table).

Now the assembled units. The rear rank figures were removed from temporary bases and added to the front rank. Then the base round the rear rank figures were given the now usual finish of pva glue and scattered sand which is then painted over with any old paint just to better seal the sand. They are now starting to look like units.

A couple of views from the rear also showing the mounted generals.

Next for these figures will be to paint the bases, though as friends have already commented, a 'winter' effect has a charm all of it's own.

And finally the red dragoons on the horses and bases I finished many months ago. I've just to pick a suitable standard for these chaps.

And after I finish the bases and add the flags I'll move on to the Swedish cavalry. I've already done the brown coats on the horses, but the picture I took was a bit blurred from a shaky hand so I'll post better pictures next time. As a final note, I bought a little book by Pat Condray on the uniforms of the Great Northern War and in it, he has a comment that Swedish cavalry musicians rode grey horses. I think this is the only place I've seen the comment, though I'll have to read the Lars-Eric Hoglund books again. I had thought grey horses for musicians was a later 18c development. If anyone has any definite information one way or the other, please let me know (though I don't think I'll be repainting the horses of the 8 Russian musicians I've already done).